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Book Three

Chapters 18–21

Summary: Chapter 18

Ginny recounts some history of the land, once covered in water. She tells about her grandmother, Edith, who married John, who was twice her age. Ginny goes on to tell about her father taking over Mel Scott’s farm when Scott couldn’t pay his taxes. Many thought Larry had been fiendish, and he never talked about it. Ginny’s mother’s death coincided with the Ericsons moving back to Chicago. The Ericsons sold their farm to Larry. Ginny was twelve. Several years later, she married Ty, and they moved into the Ericsons’ former home.

Summary: Chapter 19

Ginny and Rose discover, through a newspaper article, that Caroline and Frank have gotten married. They are angry not to be invited or informed, but their husbands are not. Tension rises during the Monopoly game until Rose erupts and dumps the board over. Ginny worries that Pete might react to her with violence. She also acknowledges that Rose can be provocative. As they clean up and regroup, the phone rings. Larry has been in a car accident and is in the emergency room but will be released. The sisters suspect that he’d been drinking. On the way to the hospital, Ty tells Ginny that she is not handling her father well and that she needs to be more tolerant and less reactive. Ginny imagines Jess’s face. She agrees with Ty and knows that she loves him, but she also knows that she will sleep with Jess. 

Summary: Chapter 20

Ginny picks up Larry at the hospital. Larry is silent the whole way home. At the end of the drive, Ginny scolds her father as if he were her child. She tells him that she will take away his keys if this happens again and that he’s got to help on the farm. At home with Ty, she is exhilarated from telling her father what to do. The next morning, Ginny makes Larry breakfast, and he goes out to the barn. Rose comes in, and the two sisters argue about their father. Rose admits that she hates him and sometimes hates Ginny because she is the link between herself and Larry. Ginny admits that she’s too easy on Larry, and they agree to be a united front as they get tough with him. The chapter ends with a loving hug. 

Summary: Chapter 21

Ginny thinks critically about her relationship with Ty and the kind of man he is. Ty doesn’t think Rose and Ginny should get tough with their father, but Jess agrees with them. Ginny likes watching Jess run in the mornings. She encounters Harold Clark in a gas station and overhears him talking about his dilemma of owning just one farm but having two boys and how he might change his will. Harold has turned against Loren. He criticizes and belittles him. Jess explodes at his father in retaliation. Jess tells Ginny his plans for organic farming. After a long day of farm chores—including castrating pigs—Ginny and Ty have satisfying sex after Ginny had been thinking about Jess. The next afternoon, Ginny meets Jess in the dump with the roses, and they make passionate love. Afterward, Ginny tells Jess about her miscarriages, and he blames the nitrates in the well water caused by fertilizers. That evening, Ty asks Ginny if she had used birth control the night before, and she claims to have just finished her period. They argue, and Ty leaves the house. Ginny removes her diaphragm, feeling afraid of what she has done. 

Analysis: Chapters 18–21

Book Three begins with a deeper dive into Ginny’s psychology and memory. She recalls her mother’s death and Mrs. Ericson’s kindness toward her during the sensitive time of her mother’s funeral. Ginny then remembers the sudden news that their father had bought the Ericsons’ farm and that this kind family, too, would be gone. Little by little, Ginny is peeling back her life and beginning to examine her memories. So far, she has recalled the time before her mother’s death, the time of her mother’s death, and her marriage to Ty when she was nineteen. Ginny has not recalled much about her teenage years other than caring for Caroline. With each recollection, readers learn more about Ginny, and she learns more about herself.

These chapters also offer more insight into the dark side of Larry Cook, specifically his greed to acquire more land. It trumps any integrity to support a neighbor in need. Ginny thinks of her father like a vulture, just waiting for land to become available to create his 1,000 acres. However, Larry’s orderly, predictable life begins to unravel in these chapters. A white brocade couch is delivered to his house, joining the soggy kitchen cabinets, and his car is smashed and impounded. Also, sexual imagery associated with Larry begins to emerge in Ginny’s consciousness. Observations such as “the buzzing machine monotonously unzipping the crusted soil” may not be explicit, but there is a double meaning just under the surface, nearly revealed.

Rose shows her true self when she erupts during the Monopoly game over Larry’s situation. Unlike Ginny, Rose is unafraid, even with her husband, who has a temper. Ginny recalls that her sister used to almost glow in her anger when they were young. Her outburst makes Ginny recoil with the memories of it. It’s difficult to imagine Ginny being angry, but Rose walks around angry. Her anger is just below the surface, waiting to be let out.

Ginny and Rose have a breakthrough in their chilly relationship when they argue about their father and then unite in their intention to try to manage him. Rose does not believe that they can control their father, but she’s willing to go along with her sister. During the argument, Rose comes very close to speaking some secret truth but then withdraws. The sisters skate around some bit of history that neither can talk about yet. When Rose comments that Ginny is such a good daughter because she refrains from judging too quickly, she really means that Ginny takes her father’s side and doesn’t face the facts that are in front of them. Readers don’t yet know what Rose means by this observation exactly, but Smiley is adding more crumbs to the trail.

The most significant event in this section is Ginny having sex with Jess. She knew it was going to happen, and she does nothing to stop it. Ironically, it is the day after she’s had great sex with Ty the night before, even though that began with her thinking about being with Jess. Ginny thinks that others will consider her an enemy of her family, her friends, and herself. However, the experience makes her feel oddly calm and complete, not guilty or self-loathing. Ginny does admit to feeling some fear, but we know that she always expects and prepares for the worst. Her composure is evidence that she has split herself into two people once again: one, Ty’s wife; the other, Jess’s lover.

Previous section Chapters 15–17 Next section Chapters 22–25

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